Basic Trope: It's a character's birthday, but it's not said which age they're turning.
- Straight: An episode focuses on Ben's birthday, although it's unknown how old he is.
- Exaggerated: The entire main cast shares a birthday, and we don't know any of their ages.
- Downplayed: It's stated that Ben is in his 20s, giving us an idea of his age.
- Justified:
- Ben is embarrassed about his age, so everyone tactfully avoids mentioning it.
- Ben is part of an immortal race; age no longer means anything.
- It's not a milestone birthday.
- There are no newcomers in the group, so they already know how old Ben is turning.
- Ben already has a Vague Age to begin with.
- Inverted:
- Ben's age is stated in every episode, except when it's his birthday.
- Ben is having a milestone birthday of some kind (whether it's dreaded or not), and his age is very prominently stated throughout the episode.
- Subverted: Ben's age is kept a secret until the end of the episode, where Jones mentions that he's now 27.
- Double Subverted: Ben responds, "That's not my age!" It turns out that Jones was wrong.
- Parodied: Whenever someone mentions how old Ben will be, it's bleeped out as if they were saying a swear word. The candles on Ben's cake are also blurred out.
- Zig-Zagged: The episode avoids saying how old Ben is, and then it's later revealed that he's turning 24. It turns out that this was a lie. Later, his real age is revealed, but this also turns out to be incorrect. This becomes an Overly Long Gag.
- Averted: It's stated that Ben is turning 23.
- Enforced:
- The executives force Comic-Book Time so their characters don't have to get older.
- It's a show for children; children are more likely to associate birthdays with having fun, rather than turning a year older, so it's just not important to say how old the character is turning.
- Lampshaded:
- "Happy birthday, Ben! How old are you now?" "Well, I'm-" (truck honks)
- "Despite it being Ben's birthday, I'm not really sure how old he is."
- Invoked: Ben specifically doesn't want anyone to know how old he'll be.
- Exploited: Despite actually being younger than this, Ben is able to successfully convince others that he's turning 21 so that he can drink on his birthday.
- Defied: Ben writes how old he's turning on the party invitations.
- Discussed:Alice: "Happy birthday, Ben! How old are you turning again?"
Ben: "I'm 21, just like last year, and the year before that, and the one before that..." - Conversed: "These shows always have characters celebrate their birthdays, but they never seem to get any older."
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